Crowdfunding + WordPress, Kickstart it Yourself!

Crowdfunding + WordPress, Kickstart it Yourself!

It’s the talk of the town interwebs, crowdfunding is in! People are opening up to new ideas and actually investing in them via online portals, donation widgets and sites dedicated to a cause/product.

By the time this year is up it will be known as the “Year of the Fundraiser“. While the concept is not at all new, the way it’s being done online, where the investor/donator has never met the benefactor, is a completely new phenomenon. And, that’s a good thing. Because, seriously, why can’t we all just get along and benefit from great ideas?!

While there are various ways you can raise funds online, here’s how you can do it on your very own WordPress site!

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Fundraising Plugins

There’s quite a few to pick from, so here’s a handful to get you started:

Donations – You can ask your readers to donate to you via 3 payment processing services. There’s a handy configuration page for you to set up your options and get your campaign of the ground.

Donate Plus – Offers various shortcodes that can be used to show your donations status, list of donators and your total amount of donations.

Donation Widget – More than just a button – includes progress meter & photo – available in 3 sizes and 9 colors.

PayPal Donations – One of the more popular options available, the plugin offers an option panel to configure your donations request. A handy sidebar widget is available as well.

Donation Plugin by NonProfitCMS – The NonprofitCMS.org WordPress Donate Plugin allows you to create unlimited donation campaigns with goals, capture donor information and gives a donation progress for each campaign! Donors receive a customizable confirmation email. You can view specific donor information in the WordPress backend.

Personal Fundraiser – My personal choice, if I ever needed funds for anything. This plugin provides organizations the ability to allow their fans and constituents to create their own custom online fundraisers using PayPal donations and other payment methods. Has a nice list of shortcodes you can use to show various data.

Fundraising/Charity Themes

These themes offer you a functional design meant to give emphasis either to your cause, or your fundraising venture.

Organic NonProft – From Organic Themes, a very nice and clean design. Theme offers a nice slider on the home page, and many other elements that will help you propagate your goals.

Saving Grace – Saving Grace is a theme specifically for charities & non-profit organizations. It also includes donation functionality so you can accept donations through PayPal and let visitors see the progress of donations in the theme.

Sadly, that’s it. The other themes I found had more of a charity theme to them, but with so many other options available you could virtually use any for this purpose.

Have you ever raised money for a venture or an idea yet? How did it go? Let us know in the comments.